Islamist group claims credit for missile strikes

A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda said on Monday it was behind the firing of rockets into northern Israel last week.

“Your brothers fired two Katyusha rockets from south Lebanon which landed in the Naharia settlement in the north of occupied Palestine,” a statement on web sites used by militants said.

It cited Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and preventing worshippers praying at the Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem as the reasons for the action.

The statement was signed by the Ziad al-Jarrah division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the posting’s headline linked the group to Sunni Muslim militant network al Qaeda.

Ziad al-Jarrah, a Lebanese militant, was one of the group of 19 who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001 in the United States. Abdullah Azzam was a preacher close to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

It was not possible to verify the claim. A group using the name Abdullah Azzam Brigades said it carried out deadly bombings at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005.

Israel retaliated to the rocket attack by firing shells. No one was injured on either side. The Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and has its stronghold in the south, denied responsibility for the February attack.